Standardisation Of Headings

We need a standardisation of CT headings, for example, Iíve been using something like:
X-NET ENTRY//3285435.347/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/AUTOPSIES/GREY
Hailfire22 uses:
X-NET Entry DN153-75-987d
Alien specimen: Cloak (Live)
Others have none, we need to pick one if we are to have all CTs be coherent and similar in layout.
Post your thoughts here please, what should we do?

Well, I would prefer something like that looks like itís taken out from DOS. Basicly because itís cool. But the main reason is that it would add a nostalgic element to us old' x-com fans.Eks Long version:

We need a standardisation of CT headings, for example, Iíve been using something like:X-NET ENTRY//3285435.347/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/AUTOPSIES/GREYHailfire22 uses:X-NET Entry DN153-75-987dAlien specimen: Cloak (Live)Others have none, we need to pick one if we are to have all CTs be coherent and similar in layout.Post your thoughts here please, what should we do?

Actually I'd like to see something like a combination of Azrael's and mine. Maybe:

Yes, perhaps nothing that long, as Hailfire suggested it might be good for the first time you use the X-Net, but for all references I would prefer something like a web-directory, like the ones I've been using or the combination Hailfire has suggested, specially since it has already been suggested some place else that the Xnet is a web-based encyclopedia of some sorts.The thing is that if we are going with that, we must set the directories, so that all CTs are coherent.Just as an example:X-NET ENTRY//3282312.346/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/AUTOPSIES/GREYX-NET ENTRY//3245335.367/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/WEAPON/PLASMA/RIFLEX-NET ENTRY//3287535.347/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/CRAFT/TRANSPORT/XC-11X-NET ENTRY//3585423.343/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/DEBRIEFING/GREY LEADER

Yes, perhaps nothing that long, as Hailfire suggested it might be good for the first time you use the X-Net, but for all references I would prefer something like a web-directory, like the ones I've been using or the combination Hailfire has suggested, specially since it has already been suggested some place else that the Xnet is a web-based encyclopedia of some sorts.The thing is that if we are going with that, we must set the directories, so that all CTs are coherent.Just as an example:X-NET ENTRY//3282312.346/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/AUTOPSIES/GREYX-NET ENTRY//3245335.367/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/WEAPON/PLASMA/RIFLEX-NET ENTRY//3287535.347/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/CRAFT/TRANSPORT/XC-11X-NET ENTRY//3585423.343/AJU/PEGASUSNET/XC/AC/ALIEN/DEBRIEFING/GREY LEADER

As long as you don't have to wait before the entry you want to see appears, I'd hate it if every time a want to check something in the UFOPaedia there's this 'loading-please wait' for a few seconds.

acctually i think loading time is a way to give the game some feel, and i think that we should have a option to turn loding time on and off. if there where to be loding time though it should be very short. even half a secound would add to the "feel"

Edited by Qonfused, 19 December 2004 - 10:15 AM.

My doctor says that I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therfore exused from saving Universes.

As long as you don't have to wait before the entry you want to see appears, I'd hate it if every time a want to check something in the UFOPaedia there's this 'loading-please wait' for a few seconds.

acctually i think loading time is a way to give the game some feel, and i think that we should have a option to turn loding time on and off. if there where to be loding time though it should be very short. even half a secound would add to the "feel"

I like that idea, that would have to be discussed with someone from Programming. It'd certainly add a feel (many feels )

Half a second would be excusable MAYBE. Although it might give a slight extra immersiveness to the game which players enjoy, it would also make the player wait which player ABHOR. So unless the wait is very very short I can pretty much promise there will be some complaints => .

However, there is nothing wrong with the X-Net loading as fast as possible yet still displaying "Uploading..." or some such fluff that you guys have suggested. The player won't have to wait longer than he has to (on an old comp he might have to wait anyway so problem solved heh) but he still gets a little bit of that feeling that he is actually logging on to the X-Corps server.

Don't really have any suggestions for the naming convention though, just choose one that gets the point across .

if we are able to add a on - off option in the options, there is no, problem with adding the wating time.

has anyone played the game "UPLINK." its a hacker game that implements the artifical loading time quite nicly. a loding time there takes about 0,7 secounds. and there are fake bios stuff like\connecting to 142.854.213.564:24873\connection accepted\username/password acceptedor<::> Sending Request to X-Corps Universal Database<::> Request Accepted. Access granted.<::> Connecting to 213.13.69.25:5401that comes at a rate of 0,1 secounds pr. item in the loading time.

Edited by Qonfused, 19 December 2004 - 10:38 AM.

My doctor says that I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therfore exused from saving Universes.

Yes, right, the letters are big, we're gonna have to shorten our creativeness here , so are you all ok with the
xnet://pegasus.net/ -> the rest
RK suggested? (though it may be a little simplier than I'd have liked, but what you gonna do? )

In there I think I included all CTs, everyone should have it's directory I think, the one about Mission Logs was just if someone wanted to make a reference to something that might have happened in a mission, as in my Artopod concept.
Tell me your opinions and if you feel something should be changed

Yes, right, the letters are big, we're gonna have to shorten our creativeness here , so are you all ok with the xnet://pegasus.net/ -> the restRK suggested? (though it may be a little simplier than I'd have liked, but what you gonna do? )

In there I think I included all CTs, everyone should have it's directory I think, the one about Mission Logs was just if someone wanted to make a reference to something that might have happened in a mission, as in my Artopod concept.Tell me your opinions and if you feel something should be changed

We'll go with this, then, unless someone has something against it. Thank you all for your help

X-Net will be stored in an XML file, right? In that case we can simply use the 'type' property of the entries for creating the path to the file.

xnet://pegasus/ would be fixed, appended by type and name as taken from the XML file.

This makes it easy for developers to see which entry it is, and it stimulates people to use 'decent' names in the XML files, instead of abbreviated letterspaghetti. And we'd no longer need to think up names for the directories, as that's already done.